K^ 



The 

Philippine 




blem 



•s 



An Address delivered at the. Seventh Annual 
Meeting of the Anti-Imperialist League 



BY 



Moorfield Storey 



PUBWSHED BY 

THE ANTMMPERIAUST LEAGUE 

20 CENTRAI, STREKT, BOSTON 



The 

Philippine Problem 
To-Day 



An Address delivered at tlie Seventh Annual. 
Meeting of the Anti-Imperialist League 

BY 



Moorfield Storey 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE 

20 CENTRAL STREET, BOSTON 



^1P 



Gift 
Author 
(Person) 

3 1 VI f 07 



The Philippine Problem 
To-Day 



It is very pleasant to meet you all again and to rejoice with 
you in the progress of our cause, for this has been a year of 
marked advance. The wave of imperialism, which reached this 
country in 1898 and for awhile threatened to drown our 
people's faith in the great principles of free government has 
spent its force, and the tide is ebbing fast. The theory that the 
white races are necessarily superior to those whose skins have 
a richer hue and that white men, therefore, have a divine mis- 
sion to conquer and govern all others has been rudely shattered. 
Mt»re recent experience has discredited the belief that white 
men can govern yellow, brown and black men better than 
they can govern themselves. The schemes for the partition of 
Asia among the great powers of Europe are indefinitely post- 
poned. Govenunent by might the world over totters to its fall. 

When the armies of Russia were defeated in battle after 
battle, when Port Arthur, that impregnable stronghold, was 
taken, and finally when the Russian fleet was overwhelmed in 
the straits of Japan, the superstition that yellow men are infe- 
rior to white, that Asiatics are not in every way equal to Euro- 
peans, received its death blow. "The dwarfs with the faces of 
baboonfi and the brains of monkeys," as the Russians contemp- 
tuously called them, have brought Russia to its knee:i. 

Not only has Japan freed Asia from the peril of Russian 



tyranny; it has emancipated the Russians themselves. The 
most powerful autocracy in the world, fortified by the traditions 
of centuries, controlling an enormous and subservient armv, 
ruling a people poor, ignorant, disorganized and abjectly sub- 
missive, inspiring terror at home and abroad, possessing every 
thing that can place tyranny beyond the reach of disaster, has 
been forced to surrender its authority, and to recognize that 
even its power cannot endure without the consent of the gov- 
erned. Whether the Russian revolution terminates like the 
French in a frenzy of terror and bloodshed, or whether the evil 
results of long oppression on every class in Russia can be rem- 
edied by peaceful legislation, we are not wise enough to tell, 
but when the Czar of all the Russias admits that he cannot gov- 
ern his people without their consent, no man can hope and uo 
man need fear that government by brute force will endure any- 
where. 

The oppression of many years with all the blood that has been 
shed to maintain order in "Warsaw has not extinguished the 
spirit of freedom in Poland. Finland has recovered its ancient 
constitution. Norway peacefully resumes its independence. 
The tie which subjects Hungary to Austria is strained to the 
breaking: point. Everywhere the movement of men is toward? 
popular rights and national independence. In our own country 
the campaign against the equal rights of men has been arrested 
in Maryland. The best men in the South are rousing them- 
selves to oppose the monstrous doctrine that the remedy foe 
colored ignorance and brutality is to keep the whole colored 
race ignorant and brutal, to deny them the rights, opportunities 
and education of white men — in a word, that the way to lift 
them up is to keep them down. 

The world is beginning to think, and the ancient standards of 
right and wrong again assert themselves. 

"Great captains with their guns and drums 

Obscure our judgment for the hour, 
But at length silence comes." 

and in that silence we hear the still small voice which ever 
teaches that all men are brothers. 

At a time like this when the whole world is moving towards 
freedom, does it not seem passing strange that this great coun- 
try, the apostle of freedom, should persist in setting an example 



of tyranny; that we should take from another people the right 
to govern themselves in their own country, establish over them 
a government in which they have no voice, deny them the pro- 
tection of any constitution, and rule them absolutely without 
their consent? Is the Land of the Free the last country in which 
a universal movement for freedom is felt? There are those who 
would have us think that the cause of Philippine independence 
is lost, as their fathers would have led men to believe that slavery 
was a divine institution and destined to endure in this country. 
"We do not believe it. We have not lost faith in our country- 
men. The independence of the Philippines is assured. What 
are the sig'us of the times? 

THE ADMITTED DESIRE OF THE FILIPINOS FOR INDEPENDENCE. 

Certain disputed propositions are now finally settled. We no 
longer hear that only a part of the Pilipinos, a few self-seeking 
agitators desire independence, while the rest are content with 
American rule, and that were it not for anti-imperial pam- 
phlets and speeches the talk of independence would die out. It 
is now admitted that the whole Filipino nation is united in de- 
manding independence. They have tried benevolent assimila- 
tion for seven years of pestilence and famine, and they do no^ 
like it. War, even the extreme severities. of General Smith and 
General Bell, water cure and like tortures, reconcentration, re- 
peated and persistent, punishment in every form have all been 
tried faithfully, but still the Filipinos do not love us. They are 
strangelv like the Italians, whom the cruelties of Austria only 
stimulated, like the Dutch who refused to be crushed by the 
methods of Alva, like the Poles, like the Greeks, like the Irish, 
like every other race of human beings, for history teaches that 
oppression always and everywhere fosters the love of freedom. 

The evidence on this point is overwhelming. 

The Filipino Republican party, by authority of its president, 
issued on August 5th last a manifesto in which after express- 
ing gratitude to the Americans and reverence for President 
Roosevelt and Secretary Taft, and after thanking the latter 
for his insistence "that the Philippines shall be for the 

Filipinos, But we firmly and sincerely believe 

that these pregnant words will remain merely vain promises — 
since in practice even the constitutional guarantees are illusory 
in this country — until such time as independence under an 



American protectorate sliall be definitely establislind in the 
archipelago." 

On the 29th of August, in a crowded hall largely iiiled with 
the best Filipinos, "The Committee of Philippine Interests" 
presented a petition to the visiting Congressmen in which they 
stated "that the general desire of the Filipino people is to 
possess independent national existence as soon as possible, and 
asked Congress at once to declare that this will be granted, and 
that "to assure this independence either the Philippine Islands 
may be declared neutral territory or else be placed under a 
protectorate of the United States." 

Another petition, presented at the same time, signed by lead- 
ing Filipinos, was an admirable argument for immediate inde- 
pendence, and concluded: "By all that we have expressed, and 
relying upon the justice of the American nation, we petition the 
Congress of the United States of ISTorth America in the name of 
the Filipinos for the immediate independence of the Philippine 
Islands with declaration of perpetual neutrality." 

These petitions were followed by speeches in which the 
unanimous desire of the Filipino people was vigorously ex- 
pressed. The visitors were convinced that these speakers truly 
represented their people. Thus we find in the Boston Tran- 
script, to which no anti-imperialist for years has looked for 
sympathy, a letter written by James A. Leroy, formerly secre- 
tary of a Philippine Commissioner and a member of the Taf t 
party, in which he says: 

"It need not be said here again, as it is now admitted by all 
who know the situation in the Islands, that independence is the 
ideal of nearly all Filipinos." 

And this statement was made under date of August 13, two 
weeks before the petitions from which I have quoted were pre- 
sented. 

Congressman Parsons, another member of the Taft party, 
and a strong Kepublican, writes to the Tribune: 

"There is no question that all the Filipino parties are now in 
favor of independence." 

I might quote indefinitely — not to prove that the Filipinos 
desire independence, they have proved that by their long 
struggle against us — but to prove that their desire is openly 
asserted and its existence no longer denied. 



OUR FAILURE IN HAWAII AND PORTO RICO. 

It is apparent next that all our efforts to govern other people 
as subjects have failed, as well when they have submitted peace- 
fully as when they have resisted bitterly. I need not speak 
of Indians or Negroes. Theirs are "ancient tales of wronj^." 
Let me deal only with our latest efforts in the light of this new 
century. 

Vftat says Hawaii. Let me quote the words of Henry E. 
Cooper, who was prominent in the revolution, has been acting 
governor and attorney general and who continues to be a leader 
in the affairs of the Islands, but does not like the result of his 
labors. He says : 

"Hawaii was an exceptionally prosperous little country just 
before American absorption, its people were happy and con- 
tented, there were ideal trade relations with the United States, 
which resulted in our spending with American merchants from 
$25,000,000 to $30,000,000 annually, and we had an abun- 
dance of cheap and eificient labor. This was the state of affairs 

in 1896 Today, while we have no scarcity 

of capital in Hawaii, nobody wants to borrow money, for ths 
uncertainty and instability of our conditions has paralyzed all 
business enterprise. Honolulu has lost 700 inhabitants within 
a recent period and numbers of people have abandoned their 
homes. Nobody will invest a dollar in any new business, and 
curtailment is the watchword. Unless there is a radical change 
in the near future, we shall see the grass gromng in the streets 
of Honolulu and people of means will, at no distant day, be 
subsistins' on fish and poi." 

He is not the only American who has found the conditioKs 
after the revolution changed distinctly for the worse, and wh:) 
has wished that the islands were again independent. 

Porto Eico is thoroughly discontented. On July 25, seven 
years from the day when our army landed in Porto Rico, a 
meeting of delegates from sixty-five out of the sixty-six muni- 
cipalities of Porto Rico met in San Juan at the invitation of Mr. 
Todd, the American mayor of the city, and addressed a petition 
to the Congress of the United States. Let me quote a fevv- 
sentences from it. 

"Seven years ago today, the twenty-fifth of July, the Ameri- 
can army invaded this country by the port of Guanica. We 
knew the history and tradition of your country, we knew that 



the flag of your nation forever floated over wortlij homes and 
dignified communities; the landing of your soldiers meant to 
us the further enlargement of the horizon of our public life. 

Shortly before that time the nation that discovered this coun- 
try — having theretofore granted to the inhabitants of Porto 
Eico the same political rights as to the inhabitants of the Span- 
ish peninsula — had acknowledged the principle of self-govern- 
ment in our local administration, and it was natural, therefoxo, 
that we should have felt confident that the invading nation 
would not lessen the scope of that principle, especially in view 
of your own declaration that the war of 1898 was waged for the 
purpose of liberating countries which were being ruled over by 
tyranny. 

********** 

In opposition to the most simple principles of political law 
obtaining, without a single exception, in countries under a par- 
liamentary system of government, such as France or Great 
Britain, or under a representative system such as that of your 
own country, the legislative and executive powers are merged in 
the Executive Council, the majority of which, composed of the 
six heads of departments, heretofore Americans, are the arbiters 
in the passage of our laws. Then they apply the law by them- 
selves, modify it at times, and at other times repeal it, as was 
the case on the third day of June of this year, on which date the 
Appropriation Act, passed and approved March 9, 1905, was 
partly repealed. And it was so repealed exclusively by the 
American membei-s of the Council against the vote of the Porto 
Eicans. Thus the six Americans appointed by the President 
have had greater power than the thirty-five representatives of 
the Island in the House of Delegates and the five Porto Rico 
members of the Council; in other words, they have had mor'? 
power than the whole people of Porto Eico. 
********** 

Pray, ^rant unto this country all legislative authority and at 
the same time all responsibility. We cannot accept that public 
officers be sent to Porto Eico who, as a general rule, are unac- 
quainted with the language, the customs, and the needs of this 
country, and within twenty-four hours after their arrival taka 
their seats in the Executive Council and decide by their votes 
complicated and transcendental questions. We desire that the 
opportunity heretofore denied to us be given that we may show 



tliat we arc now capable of self-government. Our common- 
wealth has an old civilization of its own; we have shown our 
estimation and respect for the laws; we worked out the problem 
of the abolition of slavery within the most perfect norinjil 
bounds; we have met without disorder most terrible financial 
crises. We know ourselves, we fully know our needs and \vc 
are fully convinced that we can successfully manage our ov.-n 

a if airs. 

* * * * -x- * * * * •:- 

y You have been memoralized firstly and at divers times by the 
Eepublican party; you were memorialized by the Federal party, 
now dissolved; you were recently memorialized by the majority 
in the House of Delegates in a House Memorial addiessed to 
you; but today it is not part of the people, but the whole of the 
people who address you. And as the people's faith is in you, 
and as the people expect from you a generous act, and as thc3 
people find, to their surprise, that they are being driven to feel 
anti-American, they appeal to you, to the only power that may 
save them in this supreme conflict, and rest in the certainty that 
they will be treated as one who confidently, friendly and re- 
spectfully presents himself, though dignified and firm, asking, 
for an undeniable act of equity and justice." 

On the 12th of August the teachers of Porto Eico, in masa 
meeting assembled, also addressed Congress. They begin : 

"Among the social classes of Porto Rico there exists a pro- 
found disgust. It finds daily echo in our public press, and it is 
known throughout the Latin nations of the western h-?misphere. 

We, the school teachers of Porto Rico, congregated in asseir;- 
bly, have resolved to submit to the consideration of the Ameri- 
can people and the United States Congress that state of affair-. 
This we consider our right as citizens; this we consider cur duty 
as school teachers of the Island." 

They continue: 

''The two supreme aspirations which are paramount in the 
mind of the Porto Rican public opinion are both just and gen- 
erous, as they concur in the letter and spirit with the American 
constitution. Either Porto Rico should become a state of the 
Union, or it should be made an independent nation, like Cuba.'* 

They say further: 

"None can speak with higher authority than can we to the 
American people. Porto Rico suffers; Porto Rico is tired of 
her imposed government and wants justice done. The big 



Beems bigger when it renders justice to the small. The small 
seems big; when it fights for its rights. 

Our main need is to know definitely which political status 
shall be bestowed upon us. This uncertainty kills our efforts, 
and it is quite harmful to public education. 
********** 

Our pupils are learning in your own history to detest the 
colonial regime, and Porto Rico is recognized as a colony by ibe 
great nation which prides herself with a glorious history. Deep 
is the abyss yawning between our system of public education 
and our insular government. 

And it should be to the advantage of the American interests 
that our status be rendered consistent with our teachings." 

That general discontent prevails in this island is confirmed 
by private advices from various sources* The Spanish popula- 
tion despise and dislike the Americans, and the latter look 
down upon and dislike the Spanish. They are drifting apart, 
and it is easy to imagine why, if we will only suppose their 
positions revei*sed. 



*NOTE. 

A letter has been received in this country from Mayor R. H. Todd, of 
San Juan, P. R., dated November 14, in which he considers the insular 
situation in the light of the memorial to Congress in favor of a larger meas 
ure of home rule, which was unanimously adopted last July by the conven- 
tion of Porto Rican municipalities. Mayor Todd writes to his American 
correspondent as follows: — 

I hope to be in New York, on my way to Washmgton, the first week in 
January, and I will communicate with you with a view of asking your 
advice "regarding the work which I am about to do in Washington to further 
the petition embodied in the memorial. If the Porto Ricans are not entitled 
to what they ask for in said memorial, it would have been better for them 
that the change of flag had not taken place. When your soldiers landed at 
Ouanica on the 25th of July, 1898, the only things Spanish in Porto Rico 
were the flag and the captain general. The Porto Ricans had control of the 
administration of affairs, and in every important position of trust there was 
a Pcrto Rican. Today, after seven years of American control, a Porto Rican 
is a nobody in his own country, and if he dares to criticise those acts whicii 
he considers to be against the welfare of his country, he is branded as an 
Anti- American agitator. 

Of course, the Porto Ricans are trained in the right of petition, and we 
will address Congress again and again for what we think is our due, unti\ 
we get what is ours. At first we thought we would be treated with some 
more respect and we decided to wait. We are a community of a million 
inhabitants; our language, our customs, our civilization are entirely differ- 
ent from yours; and all these considerations together should have coun- 
seled you to select with extra care the men who were to be sent down here 
to teach us the science of government. The feeling of disgust, which Is unan- 
imous, shows plainly that you have failed in your task. If we were to follow 
in the footsteps of those who have been our teachers in the art of govern- 
ment, we would have to do things which our standard of right and justice 
and decency tells us to be wrong. The demands set forth in the memorial 
are plain and simple. We want self-government. We sustain the theory 
that no man, that no set of men, can successfully govern a foreign country; 

10 



The Porto Eicans are proud and cannot endure the denial ot 
recognition as citizens. Their commissioner speaks reasonably 
when he says: 

"It is only a matter of sentiment, and for granting it tlio 
United States will lose nothing, as if we were citizens we couM 
not vote on Federal matters or have any hand in the affairs cif 
the Nation. Citizenship should have been granted with civil 
government. The two go hand in hand. With citizenship we 
would be more respected abroad and there would be other ad- 
vantages, but we are insisting on citizenship as a matter of 
pride. What are we now? Citizens of no country at all! Wo 
are even denied the right of naturalization. The most ignorant, 
worthless European emigrant has more advantage than we." 

How is it with the Philippines? 

CONTINUED RESISTANCE IN THE PHILIPPINES. 

A year ago during the Presidential campaign we were assured 
that tranquillity was established, that "all the rights contained 
in the bill of rights in the Constitution of the United States 
except the right to bear arms and the right to trial by jury'' 
were "secured to every man, woman and child among the 
Christian Filipinos." 

What are the facts as we gather them from official source-s? 
Let me quote from first the report of General Carter, command- 
ing the Department of the Visayas, for the year from July 1, 
1904, to July 1, 1905, which first saw the light in this country 
late in August, 1905. His report is dated July 1, 1905, and his 
last report was probably dated July 1, 1904. He says: 

"Witliin a few days after the rendition of the annual report 
for last year a serious outbreak occurred in the Gandara Valley, 
Samar. This was followed by disorders in all the other large 
islands of the department, Negros, Panay, Cebu and Leyte. 
The ordinary ladrone element, reinforced to some extent from 



f oreien In language, in customs and in civilization. We claim further tnat 
no country in America can be free and happy if its people is denied the 
blessings of the age; namely, a full measure of self-government. We hope 
to get the support of every good American in our demands. We hope still 
further that we will be able to convince the American people that we can 
be entrusted with the government of our own country, with the certainty in 
advance that we will succeed in our enterprise, and with the still furtner 
assurance that we cannot do it any worse than our present distinguished 
local administration. I have extended this letter more than I intended, and 
will close with the request that you give us your valuable aid in our de- 
mands, which are based on justice and right. 

11 



the idle and crimiual classes, was responsible for the troubles in 
the last named islands." 

Let me pause here and note first that it was only in the lasc 
four islands, not in Samar, that the ladrone element was re- 
sponsible for the troubles. In Samar it was apparently an 
uprising of the people. 

Let me note in the second place the phase "the ladrone ele- 
ment reinforced to some extent from the idle and crim.inal 
classesJ" We have been taught to believe that ladrones were 
robbers, vicious, lawless people who lived by plundering tlii 
community, but it seems that ladrones do not belong to tho 
criminal classes, and this name is used as other governments u=e 
the word "rebel" to describe an unsuccessful patriot. 

Gen. Carter's report is long, but it tells of an insurrection 
w'hich spread all over the island of Samar, and at the date of 
his report he says : 

"The end is not in sight, for the repulses in northern and 
eastern Samar have resulted in the transfer of Pulajane oper- 
ations to the southwest coast." It proved too strong for the 
constabulary, and the troops were called in "after nine months 
of constant and severe field service." 

General Carter gives a list of thirty-eight encounters in which 
on the side of the government there were about eighty-six 
casualities, two lieutenants being killed and one lieutenant and 
two privates being wounded from the troops, the other casualties 
being among the Philippine constabulary and scouts, and of 
these about sixty-five were killed. On the native side 441 
officers and men were killed, eleven were wounded and ninety - 
five taken prisoners, of whom forty-seven were taken by one 
detachment of scouts. The report indicates that the number of 
wounded was thought in some cases to be large, but only eleven 
wounded are reported as definitely known, while there are 
ominous entries like seventy-four killed and no wounded or 
prisoners, and again, four officers and ninety privates are killed, 
with no wounded and only six prisoners. In the last affair on 
the side of the government only two privates were wounded and 
a guide killed. This was the result of a charge with fixed bay- 
onets into a camp which was taken by surprise, when, according 
to the report, the troops "engaged in a hand to hand conflict 
with a largely superior force, and the fight lasted about thirty 

12 



minutes." To describe such an affair as "a conflict" requires 
imagination. 

Early in his report the General says: 

"Whatever may have been the original cause of the outbreak 
it was soon lost sight of when success had drawn a large propor- 
tion of the people away from their homes and fields," a sta*(--- 
ment which seems to indicate ignorance as to why the people 
rose. This does not, however, prevent the General from saying 
later, "The Pulajane insurrection is absolutely without any 
political significance whatever," as is uniformly the official view. 

When we remember that the people of Samar hsd been so 
lately and so terribly scourged by Smith and Waller, that they 
had been so thoroughly taught their own weakness and tho 
terrible warfare which Americans can wage, that they were sc 
absolutely stripped of arms, that General Carter, in speaking of 
two skirmishes in which one American officer, two hospital coid3 
men and forty-two native scouts were killed and ten men were 
wounded, says: "The serious nature of these reverses was 
not wholly in the losses of men, but in the loss of arms 
and ammunition, of which the Pulajane? were in great need," 
we may well ask what it was that drove this feeble people to 
brave a^ain all that the power of the United States could inflict. 
Men are not lightly goaded to desperation, and when we learn 
that not only Samar but all the other islands in the group w^re 
also the scenes of simultaneous insurrection, there must harri 
been some strong reason, some intolerable misgovernmcnt which 
drove them to certain ruin and death rather than suffe/ lonffor. 
This is the tranquillity of which Secretary Taft boastc-d a year 
ago, but bear in mind that though this revolt was in active oper- 
ation durinc: the whole Presidential campaign, no hint of its exis- 
tence reached the United States then or for eleven months after- 
ward, ^ot even yet have we any reasonable explanation — either 
the government does not know what caused the trouble, or it 
does not tell. In any event the people of the United States — 
charged "u^ith the duty as we are told of governing this people — 
are not allowed to know when trouble besets their subjects. Our 
imperialist rulers will neither trust the Filipinos to govern them- 
pelves nor the American people to govern them. Secretary 
Taft and a few others alone possess the wisdom to deal with this 
problem. Alas! on how few lives does the fate of this unhappy 
race depend! 

13 



RECONCENTRATION. 

N"or is this all. On July 4, 1902, President Eoosevelt de- 
clared the war in the Philippines at an end and issued his 
proclamation of amnesty. Then "tranquillity" had been fully 
established. In the year 1902 reconcentration was used to 
suppress insurrection in Laguna and Batangas. It then affected 
not less than 100,000 people in camps holding from 8,000 to 
14,000 people each, according to the official report of Col. 
Wagner. In 1903, when every Filipino had all the civil rights 
secured to an American citizen by the Bill of Eights save the 
right to bear arms and to trial by jury, 300,000 persons wer^ 
driven from their homes into reconcentration camps in Albay, 
where very large areas were entirely denuded of population. 
15,000 people in Tayabas suffered a like fate. In 1904 some 
20,000 people in Samar and 16,000 in Cavite, close to the walig 
of Manila, were dealt with in like manner. In the curronLyfia:^ 
1905, rcDorts reach us of like operations. "We hear from Bakoor 
that "its unfortunate reconcentrated people, the inhabitants of 
the districts of Ligas and St. Nicholas, a pleasant land situated 
by the sea-side, are subjected to vigorous surveillance, not al- 
lowed to walk abroad with impunity, obliged to snatch their 
sleep in motley heaps of men, women and children, exposed by 
night and day to the elements" and every hardship which the 
terrible word "reconcentration" implies. Like reports corao 
from Batangas, but these find no place in the dispatches from 
the Philippine Islands. We learn the facts from the Manila 
press. 

Imagine three hundred thousand people charged with no 
crime taken from their homes anywhere in America because the 
government wished to catch a gang of robbers. Would no con- 
stitutional right be invaded by such a process? What a mockery 
it is to claim that the Filipinos are secured in their ci^dl rights 
when such barbarities are common. Secretary Taft is a good 
lawyer. Let him reconcile these facts with his claim. 

My fig-ures are unofficial because no official figures are fur- 
nished. When the British in time of war applied reconcentra- 
tion in South Africa a blue book issued every month informed 
the British people how many camps were established, where 
they were, how many men, women and children were in each, 
and what the mortality had been in each camp and in each class 
during the month. 'No similar record exists, as I am credibly 
informed, of what we have done in the Philippines, but if it 

14 



exists auy where it lias never been disclosed to the American 
people. Our leaders have not dared to tell us the truth. 

And they have good reason to fear. The truth i.^ fatal to 
their cause. What is reconcentration? "When Spain in the 
midst of war resorted to it President McKinley said: ''It was 
not civilized warfare," but " a new and inhuman phase happily 
unprecedented in the modern history of civilized Christian 
people.'' By a curious coincidence he is speaking of its appli- 
cation to 300,000 people, just the number who suffered by it in 
Albay l ast y ejir, and he concludes, ''It was extermination. The 
only peace it could beget was that of the wilderness and the 
grave," a "wilderness" such as General Smith sought to make of 
Samar. The people of the United States were roused to inter- 
fere, and made war upon Spain. While President McKinley 
hesitated to adopt this remedy for cj-uelties perpetrated by a 
Spanish commander, Theodore Roosevelt said, as we art* told : 

"The steps of the W^hite House are slippery with the blood of 
the reconcentrados." 

This "civilized Christian people" has hastened to adopt the 
barbarous practice which in 1898 was unprecedented. It has 
outdone Spain by employing it in times of reputed peace, and 
on a larger scale than was ever known in Cuba. The exceptional 
cruelty of Spain has become the regular practice of the United 
States. ■ Did the blood shed in Cuba when Weyler was in com- 
mand stain the steps of the White House, and that whi<.h is shed 
by the army which Theodore Eoosevelt coimnands leave no spot 
on his own threshold? Let him reflect that race murder is 
worse than race suicide. When the President has abated the 
evils of football, over which he has only the influence of an 
eminent citizen, perhaps he Avill find time to check the barbar- 
ism of men over whom he has absolute control. 

THE CONSTABULARY. 

Charges of torture inflicted by the constabulary to extort 
testimony with names and circumstances have been printed in 
the newspapers of Manila, and on July 25th last I wrote a letter 
to the President calling his attention to these charges, and to 
the accounts of reconcentration. In time I received a reply 
from the Bureau of Insular Affairs advising me that my letter 
would be sent to the Philippine Islands for investigation and 
report, and that I should be informed of the result. Sirce then 
I have heard nothing, and I cannot say more than that torture 

15 



is openly charged and that the prosecution of editors for libel 
in printing the charges has been in progress for some time. 
/ Mr. Leroy, whom I have already quoted, says on this subject: 

"Of all the departments of government wherein race preju- 
dice is exhibited toward the Filipinos and the Americans em- 
ployed are of the least cultured and most intolerant sort, the 
constabulary is by far the worst. Many non-commissioned 
officers of the regular ai-my, of scant education, poor manners 
and a contempt for the natives imbibed during their service in 
the army, have been made officers of the Philippine constabu- 
lary. Too often the so-called Eilipino officials of the corps are 
men of so large a shai-e of Spanish blood, former non-commis- 
sioned officers in the Spanish insular ai-my or civil guard, that 
they are decidedly hostile to the Filipinos and are hated by the 
people, being identified with the Spanish side of internal strife 
in the past. The secret police, again, is largely recruited from 
men who turned informers in behalf first of Spain and then 
of the United States, spies upon their own people; this fact is 
in itself enough to disqualify them for service under a new 
civil government, but they are in addition, in a very consider- 
able proportion of cases, disreputable characters of the worst 
sort, who keep out of jail only by serving the government. 
Many of the soldiers of the constabulary rank and file are of 
the same class of informers, spies and other former servants of 
the American military government who have frequently their 
private vengeances to pay, and do not scruple to do so under 
the cover of the terror which their uniform inspires. Worse 
yet, the hands of certain of the Filipino constabulary subor- 
dinates do not seem to be clean of torture in getting and array- 
ing witnesses for the government in this case. The charges, 
indeed, .o;o to the extreme of instancing one case of murder 
committed by a file of soldiers after seizing a humble Filipino 
who refused to testify to what he was ordered to say, as is bo 
often the case with witnesses on both sides of a trial in the 
Philippines." 

He condemns the government for the prosecution which I 
have just mentioned, saying, "Worse things have occurred than 
this paper has ever printed." 

THE COURTS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 

^ He criticises the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and 
hints that the judiciary has not been free from executive inter- 

lo 



ference, a charge which is sustained by evidence from private 
sources. Certain it is that Secretary Taft felt that this charge 
could not be ignored, for in a speech at Manila on August 12th 
he said: 

''It is said that the trials in the courts of first instance are 
too much a matter of executive regulation, and that the de- 
fendants do not receive justice" . . . and proceeds, "Speaking 
of my personal and intimate acquaintance derived from close 
investigation I am able to say that I think no case can be 
successfully established in which there was an undue inter- 
ference on the part of the executive." This is a careful 
statement in a careful speech. No case can be proved of ''undue 
interference." Who shall decide what is "undue interference"? 
Here is no denial that there was interference only that no 
interference "undue" in the Secretarv's opinion can be estab- 
lished. Is this merely from lack of evidence? 

He proceeds, "that there is under the present system an op- 
portunity for such interference cannot, I think, be denied," 
and so e:reat is the danger that he declares himself "strongly in 
favor" of giving the President alone the power to remove 
judges and then only for cause, and of giving to the court itself 
the power assigning judges to particular districts. In brief, he 
would take from the Commission power over the judiciary, and 
it is thus reasonably clear that he thinks it unsafe to trust them 
with the power which they now have. 

THE CONDITION OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE. 

Economic conditions are very bad, as is abundantly shown 
by the testimony of leading planters and merchants, who from 
all parts of the Islands attended the public hearings given by 
the visiting Congressmen. Let me give you examples. A 
sugar planter of Iloilo says: 

"Our situation at the present time is, therefore, a very de- 
plorable one. Seven years of calamities, with a war and 
plagues, failures of crops, etc., have reduced us to a state of 
misery to such an extent that in many plantations of I^egros and 
Panay the cultivation of sugar has been entirely abandoned. 
Owing to the low price secured by the farmer for his product 
during the past few years, a great many planters hyve been 
unable to meet their obligations and today are on the eve of 
losing their property. They are unable to get credit any 
longer. There are planters, both in the Island of Panay and 

17 



in tliat of ISTegros, who, having the deeds of their property in 
their hands, apply to the money lenders and to the bankers for 
a loan, offering to secure the loan by mortgaging their entire 
property, and are unable to secure even sufficient money to 
attend to their most pressing personal wants." 

A tobacco planter said: 

"There has never been as severe a crisis in the industry in 
the Philippine Islands as that which at present prevails. The 
Philippine tobacco industry in cigars has lost the markets of 
Ehgland, India and Australia on account of the duties imposed 
upon that article, and I wish to give these figures to prove my 
assertion. These figures refer to the exportation of manufac- 
tured tobacco. In the year 1901 it was 1,559,780 kilograms; 
in 1902, 1,063,069; in 1903, 1,235,257; in 1904, 705,827; 
and for the first six months of the year 1905, 149,828; and 
the proof of the decadence of the industry is that at the present 
day we have but ten per cent, of the number of women for- 
merly employed in our factories and but fifty per cent, of the 
number of men." 

Mr. Macleod, in behalf of the Manila Chamber of Commerce 
and the Ship Owners Association, read the report of a commit- 
tee, of which he was one. Its character is indicated by the 
following passages: 

"The country, generally speaking, is in a state of financial 
collapse. The agriculturists and merchants are passing through 
the worst crisis ever known in the annals of Philippinf^ history. 
A series of calamities has contributed to bring the country to 
this deplorable state." 

"Consequent on this ruined state, the farmers have had to 
borrow money to live on, money to plant their crops and culti- 
vate their lands, and money to bring their harvests to market, 
60 that almost the entire agricultural land throughout the 
Islands is mortgaged for more than its full value. Where the 
money has been advanced by the merchant or middleman who 
buys the produce the rate of interest has been eight per cent., 
which is considered moderate for this country, but wiiere the 
farmer has had to have recourse to other sources, the usurer 
has taken advantage to charge anything from one to three per 
cent, per month, and the farmer has year by year sunk deeper 
into the mire. 

As a natural sequence to the ruined state of the farmers, the 
merchants and middlemen who acted as bankers have lost many 

18 



millions by bad debts, and have still many millions outstanding 
of doubtful recovery. This has naturally turned all th^ir paper 
profits into real and actual losses, so that, generally speaking, 
the commercial firms are a great deal worse off today than they 
were five years ago. 

Second. Following on conditions such as above described, 
the country was by no means prepared to meet a tax on land 
already burdened by debt. The people, therefore, naturally 
felt very sore when the territorial tax was impose 1, to pay 
which they had in most cases to raise money at usurious rates 
of interest. There is a provision in the law governing this tax 
whereby the Government may order the sale of the land for 
overdue taxes, and we are under the belief that this has hap- 
pened in several cases where the owners were unable to raise 
the money. We are strongly of the opinion that the imposition 
of this tax and mode of procedure has caused and is causing 
much of the distress now prevalent throughout the Islands." 

"We beg to draw attention to the necessity of revising the 
present internal revenue law. The tax of one third of one per 
cent, on sales falls unequally, and in the case of sales cf native 
produce there is a clear discrimination against the middleman, 
who is one of the most useful and necessary members of the 
mercantile community in his capacity of banker and agent for 
the producer. 

We consider the present taxation to be excessive foe the pro- 
ducing power of the Islands. The amount raised for insular 
purposes alone is estimated at 23,000,000 pesos for the present 
fiscal year. This does not include municipal and other taxes 
which we have not been able to estimate. 

Mr. Macleod, (interrupting the reading of the report). 
While we lall appreciate the great improvements that are 
going to be brought about and have been brought about by the 
American government, and the policy they have been carrying 
out, the increase in the budget from what it was in Spanish 
times — from 13,000,000 pesos to approximately 30,000,000 
pesos — has been too high; the country is not able to support it. 

Senator Foster. Do you mean to say that the aggregate of 
taxation has raised from 13,000,000 pesos to approximately 
30,000,000 pesos? 

Mr. Macleod. Yes; the Spanish budget of 1894-95, which 
was the highest ever known in normal times, was 18,579,900 
pesos. 

19 



Eepresentative Hepburn. Did that include all of the exac- 
tions levied by the Spanish Government upon the people? 

Mr. Macleod. Yes; I will give you a list of them." 

"Third. Following the ruined state of the country and the 
present heavy taxation, it would be the last straw on the camel's 
back if the law known as the Frye bill were allowed to go into 
effect on the 1st of July, 1906. If the carrying trade between 
here and the United States be limited to American bottoms it 
simply means that the price of hemp will go down $1 per bale 
for eveiT dollar that freight goes up. It means that our sugar, 
already handicapped by being so far away from the principal 
consuming markets, will certainly not go to the United States; 
and it means the death stroke to the importation of American 
goods into these Islands." 

This is certainly a pleasant picture of the results which 
American rule has produced in the Philippines. Truly it has 
been a most "benevolent assimilation." Have we a divme mis- 
sion to establish bad government in the Philippines? 

It is of the internal revenue tax that Prof. Paul S. Eeinsch 
says, "Outside of Italy it would be hard to find a system of 
taxation that so efficiently scours the whole field of business. 
The merchants and professional men of a country like the 
United States would look upon it as a most unbearable burden." 
Yet Secretary Taft in a speech at Manila on August 8th, as 
reported in a dispatch published in the Boston Transcript, al- 
luding to this tax, said that "people refusing just taxation were 
unfitted for self-government." Has the Secretaiy forgotten the 
causes of the American Kevolution, or does he think that the 
question whether a tax is just is settled bv the opinion of the 
men who impose it? 

When I contemplate the miserable condition to which in 
seven years we have reduced the Filipino people, and contrast 
it with the prophecies of glory, wealth and power with which 
our leaders sought to still the public conscience when this be- 
trayal of liberty was proposed, I am reminded of Mr. Emerson's 
comparison between the man-way and the God-way of attack- 
ing slavery. 

"The man-way of voluntary co-operation by parties, by leg- 
islation, by compromise, by treaty," is, he says, "inefficient," 
and he points out the causes of the failure. Then he proceeds: 

"But the friction or judgment of God. There is strangely 

20 



enough, another element which does not prove so friendly to 
slavery as the Whig or line gentleman party, and that is an 
unexpected hitck in the working of the thing. There's always 
something wrong in the machinery, it is out of gear . . . 
with everything for it, it does not seem to get on." 

THE CAUSES OF OUR FAILURE. 

AVliy should our experiment succeed? If I may boj-row the 
words which President Eoosevelt aimed at us, the Administra- 
tion has been guilty of "well meant but silly persistency in 
trying to apply to people unfitted for them those theories of 
government and of national action which are only suited for" 
Englishmen and Yankees. In a word, we have been trying 
to turn rilipinos into Yankees, palm trees into pines, by force. 
I agree that it is hopelessly foolish. 

We have argued that it was wrong morally and politically, 
that it was ruinous to the Filipinos and demoralizing to us, that 
it was economically disastrous. Let me now ask an intelligent 
people whether on the whole anything could be more stupid 
than our whole course since w^e landed on these Islands. 

The Filipinos welcomed us with open arms. There is a 
pathos now in this announcement of our coming. "Compatriots, 
Divine Providence is about to place independence within our 

reacli There where you see the American flag 

flying assemble in numbers. They are our deliverers." 

As our allies they helped us to expel the Spaniards, and they 
were full of affection and gratitude to us. We could easily have 
led them up. They would have accorded gladly every privilege 
we could have asked. 

We elected to conquer, not to save. Our commanders were 
soon told to be on their guard, and to say nothing to commit 
us. When the fate of the Islands was uncertain we would not 
consult the friendly people. In vain they sent envoys to Wash- 
ington, in vain they sought admission to the chamber where 
the treaty of Paris was made. They were treated not as men 
entitled to be consulted about tl^eir o^vn dearest interests, but as 
children to be ignored, amused and deceived. We repelled their 
love and betrayed their confidence. Whatever our object, was 
not this policy stupid? 

Before the treaty was ratified President McKinley by proc- 
lamation made known to the Filipinos our purpose to take their 
country, a proclamation so certain to provoke resistance that 

21 



the general in command, a soldier not a statesman, was un- 
willing to publish it, and changed its terms. Consultation not 
merely with the Filipinos, but with our own representatives, 
a little patience, a little consideration, would have made this 
blow to a trusting people less brutal! "Was not this stupid? 

.There followed two years and a half of war, exterminating 
war, with destruction of life, of towns, of crops, of animals, 
with reconcentration, "water cure," torture, and the drastic 
measures of Smith, Bell and their associates. It was not civil- 
ized warfare, few prisoners were taken, few wounded men were 
left after a battle. No negotiations for peace were entertained. 
The only terms were unconditional submission, the methods of 
securing this, which were employed by this Christian and en- 
lightened nation were most terrible. Desiring to make the 
Filipinos loyal subjects, we tried in such ways to win their 
affection. Was not this brutally stupid? 

Then we establish civil government. What was its charac- 
ter? A recent writer on Eussia, thoroughly familiar wdth his 
subject, thus describes the government which is now falling in 
ruins: 

"Arbitrariness is the sole dependable characteristic of the 
legislative and judicial systems; and this arises not so much 
from a double dose of original sin in the personnel of the admin- 
istration, as from the absence of any real responsibility and of 
any of the guarantees enjoyed in other countries, firstly, 
through a constitution based upon personal rights, secondly, 
throuah a representative element in the legislature, and thirdly, 
through free criticism by the press, public meetings ard organ- 
ized associations." He adds the lack of "an independent judica- 
ture," and well says that the evils which exist in Eussia are 
inherent in the system, and "would exist if the Tsar and his 
ministers were angels." 

This is the exact government which we have established in 
the PhiliDpines. There also is no "real responsibility," "no 
constitution" of any kind, no "representative element in the 
legislature," no "independent judicature." The two American 
editors, who without a jury trial were sent to prison for libel, 
could have much to say about the freedom of the press. The 
Commission is legislative and executive, and the essence of the 
system is "arbitrariness." Is it not stupid for us to make a new 
Eussian despotism in the Philippines just as the original is 
shattered in Eussia ! Under such a system good government is 

22 



impossible anywhere. To criticise its results is not to reflect 
on those who administer it. The result would be the same if 
the Commissioners "were angels." The system is radically 
wrong. 

Whom do we select to administer this system? As a people 
we recognize fully the necessity of education. To be a lawyer, 
a minister, a doctor, a plumber, a carpenter, a railroad manager, 
a manufacturer, a man must be trained for years, lie cannot 
build a house, try a case, run a mill or even an engine, without 
training. For the far more difficult task of governing men, 
foreigners, whose history, whose traditions, whose ideals, whose 
natures, are different from ours, we think that no training is 
necessary. We take a judge from the trial of law suits, a lawyer 
from his office, a naturalist from his study, a professor from his 
chair, any able man no matter what his work, and s'md him 
without previous experience, with no knowledge of country or 
people, with not even the ability to understand their 'anguage, 
and put him in immediate control of a nation. The difference 
between Americans and Filipinos is the whole argument of our 
opponents. Upon that they rest their case, and yet they cannot 
see that men should be trained to understand what this differ- 
ence is before they are sent to govern. 

Suppose five New York men were sent to govern Massachu- 
setts. Should we not find them ignorant of our needs, our 
demands, our methods? Massachusetts and "New York are 
inhabited by almost the same people, only an imaginary line 
divides them. Yet slight as the difference is we ourselves know 
how true is the statement of Mr. Adams, "New York politics 
always were the Devil's own incomprehensible." For the most 
difficult political work that exists we select men wholly without 
experience or training. We retain them there a, few years and 
then change them, so that we keep our governors untrained, and 
the government is bad. . Are we not stupid to expect anything 
else? If any of our commissioners were called upon to set a leg, 
or repair a watch we should expect them to fail because they had 
never learned how. Yet the government of an alien race is far 
more difficult than either. Can we be surprised that the Porto 
Eicans object "when public officials unacquainted ^vith the 
language, the customs, and the needs of this country within 
twenty-four hours after their arrival take their seits in the 
Executive Council and decide bv their votes complicated ques- 
tions?" 

23 



Add to this that the men whom we send out to govern these 
dependencies, and their compatriots who are in the Islands, 
regard the natives as inferior, do not believe them, do not trust 
them, too often speak of them as "niggers" or with like terms of 
contempt, and tell me how it is possible that we should make 
our subiects contented. The governor who misunderstands and 
despises the people whom he governs, who does not believe their 
statements, who has no liking for or sympathy with tliem, can- 
not succeed, whether that governor is parent, teacher, general, 
or commissioner in the Philippine Islands. Is it surprising that 
race preiudice is daily growing more acute in these Islards, and 
that the Americans and natives are drifting farther and farther 
apart ? 

We say that we are fitting this people for independence, but 
we forbid them to speak or think of it. We tell them that gen- 
erations must pass before they will be ripe for it. We say to 
men in their own country, whose rights are equal to our own, 
who feel their manhood, who know that they are able to govern 
themselves and to remedy the evils which afflict their country, 
"Is^o matter what you think, we alone are fit to judge of your 
ability. Meanwhile you shall have no voice in your govern- 
ment save what we choose to give you." 

The President well said in his letter to the Kegro Business 
Men's Convention in New York, "It is as true of a race as of an 
individual that while outsiders can help to a certain degree, yet 
the real help must come in the shape of self-help. Men learn to 
be independent by being independent— by their own mistakes. 
Centuries of English rule in India have carried the Indians 
father from self-government. The President's statement is 
sound. :N'o one can read history and doubt it. Why aie we not 
wise enough to recognize the truth and act upon it? 

We teach the Filipinos English, the language of freedom. 
We open to them the history of our Revolution, our Declara- 
tion of Independence. We teach them to read in the speeches 
of Lincoln, "I^o man is good enough to govern another without 
that other's consent," and we expect them to be our contented 
subjects for generations, kissing the rod that smites them, enjoy- 
ing the contempt which is heaped upon them, loving to be 
treated as an inferior people. How strange an expectation. I 
read in the Transcript, the other night, in an article on Eussia 
this sentence: 



24 



"If the object of Kussia lias been to make a discontented 
people desperate, the methods have been well adapted to that 
end. Everything that could anger, everything that could hu- 
miliate, everything that worried the sensibilities of a popula- 
tion has been done." 

Strange that our people should see so clearly what is wrong 
in Russia and not see that in the Philippines we are doing the 
same things. 

r But we are giving them education and public improvements. 
Let us state this more accurately. We bclect teachers and make 
the Filipinos pay them to teach what we choose. We decide 
what improvements are needed, and we make the Filipinos pay 
for them. Our system is most expensive. Our officers are paid 
large salaries, and the impoverished Islanders cannot afford 
to pay them. We are like the rich man who tells his poor 
neighbor that he ought to have a larger house, better furniture 
newer clothes, horses and carriages and forthwith orders them, 
but has them charged to his neighbor without consulting him 
as to how these bills are to be met. It is a form of charity easy 
to the soi-disanl benefactor, but ruinous to the unhappy neigh- 
bor who is compelled to sell his home in order to pay for these 
luxuries, and who would rather live in rags than die in shining 
raiment. If we insist upon teaching our subjects English we at 
least should pay the bill, but our benevolence is tinctured with 
thrift. 

The American people prides itself on being intelligent and 
sensible. How long will it persist in a policy which is so obvi- 
ously fatuous? How long will it force upon the unwilling 
Filipinos a government which has almost ruined their Islands, 
and which has cost us enormously both in money and reputa- 
tion. We have succeeded only at frightful expense in proving 
that the historian Freeman was right when he said, "If there 
be one lesson which history clearly teaches it is this, that free 
nations cannot govern subject provinces." Why not karn this 
lesson ourselves? 

THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES ARE WAKING UP. 

I am glad to say that the people are waking up to the facts. 
l!^o longer do we hear of the wealth and glory which these 
Islands will bring us, no longer do we hear of duty and destiny. 
The burden has become heavy and we are weary of it. This is 
becoming every day more apparent. In April last Kfar Ad- 

25 



y 



miral Melville, in addressing the American Academy of Polit- 
ical Science, said: 

"The first inheritance that was thrust upon us by some evil 
genius was the Philippine Archipelago. Those Islands have 
been a tax upon the resources of every nation that ever pos- 
sessed them," and concluded, "It will subserve our financial, 
naval, commercial and national interests to recognize the fact 
that there should be no hesitancy to give up distant foreign 
possessions which we could not hold in time of war against any 
possible enemy." 

The "Divine Providence" of 1898 has become "s^-)me evil 
genius" in 1905. 

The Washington Post, speaking under the shadow of the 
"White House, says: "So long as opposition could be urged 
against the Philippine feature of the Paris treaty it was in all 
respects honorable. We believe that more than nine-tenths of 
the American people greatly regret that failure of opposition 
to defeat the consummation of that unfortunate compact." 

The Boston Watchman last summer said : 

"Those who opposed the retention of the Philippine Islands 
were vilified with malignity, but there is no well-informed per- 
son in the United States at the present time, official or private, 
who does not realize that the retention of anything more than 

a port or ports in the Islands was a mistake They 

are poorer and more demoralized than under Spanish rule. 

We may be obliged to come to the Dutch plan in 
Java and hold a few of the chief ports for trade, and leave the 
rest of the people to themselves." 

The Peoria Star says: 

"The truth of the matter is the mixed population of the 
Philippines cannot be assimilated with European ideas in one 
generation, probably not in ten. The sentiment of nationality 
will always induce them to resent the government by an alien 
race. As fast as we teach them the arts of civilized life, just 
so fast we transplant in them a desire for independence. They 
are already asking ugly questions in this very particular, and 
when we take our school books and teach them that all men are 
created free and equal and are entitled to life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness, each in his own wav, and that government 
must rest noon the consent of the governed, we are fiying in 

26 



tlie face of the constabulary, the militia and the methods of 
benevolent assimilation that we are using. 

There seems to be no other good way of accomplishing the 
result we are aiming at than to turn the whole thing over to 
Japan, where the government takes the problem of dealing 
with these mixed peoples and are on the spot and able to do. 
Of course, there is a good deal of flub-dub about never hauling 
down the flag after it has once been erected, and standing by 
our colors, and the moral duty which we owe to these heathens 
to brina- them under the blessings of a Christian govrernment, 
and the benefits we are confering upon them in the way of edu- 
cation and all that, but the fact of it is we have a very ugly 
problem on our hands, and it is a matter of plain horse sense to 
rid ourselves of it as soon as possible and as fast as we can." 

"Duty and destiny" have become "flub-dub." Think of it! 
/ The Minneapolis Tribune says: 

"The Philippines have been a burden of expense ..o us since 
they dropped in our lap. They will continue to be so for many 
years, perhaps forever. We bear the burden without much 
complaining, because it must be carried by somebody, and 
probablv no one else would take it who is even as fit as we are. 
If any nation wise and experienced in tropical colonization 
would take the Philippines off our hands with proper compen- 
sations and guarantees, we should probably be the most de- 
lighted people on earth, though we should fight to the last 
breath against forcible seizure of them. We are beginnig to 
realize that we are none too fit for the job of governing these 
queer people." 

The Boston Herald says: 

"It is true, we suppose, that the Philippine question has 
become a tiresome one to most Americans. The days when it 
was a simple affair of a glorious expansion of the do.-ninion of 
the United States and hailed as the assurance of our arrival at 
the condition of a world power were soon over. Then came the 
days when the acquisition of the archipelago in the Pacific was 
gloated over as an opening to boundless wealth. . . . This 
was the prospect, operating in connection with military jingo- 
ism, that made the country consent to the horrors of the period 
of subjugation, demoralizing to our army and decimating the 
population of the distant possessions. ... A war begim 
with the declaration tliat it was purely humanitarian and that 
the acouisition of territory by means of it would be "criminal 

27 



aggression," ended by a vast acquisition of territory without the 
consent of its inhabitants, for which we paid a bonus of 
$20,000,000 to the government that we called their oppressors, 
although in the 400 years of its sway it had never punished or 
humiliated them more cruelly than we have done, '-'he good 
bargain our commissioners made included not only tht: paltry 
$20,000,000 paid to Spain. It included in the s-^quel the 
$500,000,000, probably more, that has been spent in thwarting 
the TiliDinos' aspirations for independence, and included also 
the wrench to and perversion of the historic charters and ideals 
of our own national life. 

"It was a fearful price, and what have we got for it? A con- 
quered, discontented, impoverished 8,000,000 of alien people, 
some of them still fighting against us and beino- sl-.ughtered 
like grouse for the security of our dominion. All this we have 
done and are doing in a holy zeal to bestow on them the bless- 
ings of a form of partial self-government lacking thi essential 
substance, and the blessings of American civilizatioL^ which 
th-y Drefer to understand and adopt by their own study, in 
their own time and through a natural, unenforced development 
of their discretion. Meanwhile it has been proved that their 
country is not adapted to settlement by our citizens, and that 
our government of them is one of crushing extravagance as well 
as of arbitrary and uncongenial force. The Philippines today 
are not as prosperous nor as hopeful as they were under the 
sovereignty of Spain. Their trade vath us, outside of the re- 
quirements of the American military and civil establishments 
maintained there, shows no important and useful increase. 
"We strangle their commerce by our tariff exactions and 
- smother their industry by an enormous taxation." 

Senator Dubois, of Idaho, on his way home after ic-turning 
from the Philippines with the Taft party, said: "Mj candid 
judgment is that there was not more than one member of the 
entire party who was not sorry that we own the Philippine 
Islands. The exception was Secretary Taft himself. I believe 
that he conscientiously entertains the view that the Islands 
were placed in our hands by Providence, and our occupation 
and control of them are for providential reasons. 

"They are going to be a source of very serious trouble to us. 
The Pilipinos hate us; the two peoples are growing farther 
apart every day. In my judgment the Filipino fears our sol- 
dicTS at the same time that he is nursing his hatred. Our edu- 

28 



cation is calculated to equip them to hate us more than they 
fear us, and some day they will again begin to shoot our sol- 
diers." 

The Minneapolis Tribune, an imperialist paper, is also pen- 
itent : 

''There is an argument against political expansion in the 
comparative history of the tropical countries annexed to the 
United States and those brought under its commercial and in- 
dustrial dominion, while" left to govern themselves. 

''There is no more striking contrast than that between the 
prosperity of Cuba and the distress of Porto Rico, between the 
flourishing industries and commerce of Mexico and the stagna- 
tion and famine of the Philippines. We have given the Phil- 
ippines a mild and stable government instead of revolutionary 
ana]:chy like that with which Mexico struggled for half a cen- 
tury. But few hope that our government will ever he able to 
give the Philippines such prosperity as independent American 
capital and enterprise has given to Mexico under the stable 
government finally worked out by the efforts of her own people. 

"A far larger proportion of American capital is invested in 
Mexico than in any tropical American possession. Nearly sixty 
per cent, of Mexico's trade is ours, and the proportion has more 
than doubled in ten years. Under the stimulus of the gold 
standard Mexico's trade is rapidly increasing and nearly all the 
increment comes to us. American capital prefers Mexico to 
the Philippines because it is free there from restrictions im- 
posed by ill-advised American laws. Had the Filipinos been 
left to establish a republic, it is probable that it would have 
been more hospitable to American investments than the gov- 
ernment we gave them has been. 

"The case is even plainer in Cuba and Porto Rico. The 
marvelous prosperity of Cuban industry and trade is due di- 
rectly to American capital and enterprise, invited and encour- 
aged by the government of the republic. The distress and 
depression of Porto Rico are just as plainly due to acts of 
American legislation that have repelled American capital and 
enterprise and left the unfortunate island without railroads or 
manufactures, energetic agriculture or employment for its 
people. 

"Clearly the American government does not know much 
about administering colonial dependencies. For our credit and 
their comfort it is well that we have no more of them." 

29 



The bulletin of the Bureau of Insular Aifairs is very candid. 
"In fact, apart from the stimulus of patriotism — which is 
not to be accounted a very active force in things commercial — 
and the demand created in the Islands for American goods by 
the presence of army and civil employees of the government, 
the presence of the flag has thus far brought no special advan- 
tage to the American exporter, and such development of trade 
as he has effected in the Islands is more justly to be measured by 
the terms of trade expansion in a foreign country than under 
the glamor associated with the flag." 

Bishop Brent praises Japan's government of Formosa, "both 
in its moral flavor and in considerateness for and understanding 
of the people of the island" as "the most advanced of all" 
eastern colonial governments and accounts for it thus: "But 
there you have orientals dealing with orientals," a confession 
that Asiatics can govern Asiatics better than Anglo-Saxons can. 
Even in South Africa we are told that the mine owners find 
the government of England more expensive than the Boer 
government, which it cost England so much to destroy. 

Last and most surprising comes Dr. Lyman Abbott rejoicing 
over the late treaty between England and Japan on the gi'ound 
that "The E^ast is to be no more the foraging ground of the 
"West, to be divided up and disposed of without taking into 
account the rights or wishes of its people," which sounds much 
more like the Dr. Abbott whom we used to know than the 
lecturer who considered the "barbarian dog" a usurper in his 
own house, if "the Anglo-Saxon ox" wished to treat it as a crib. 
Saul shows at least a tendency to join the prophets. When he 
is off his guard he reverts to the truths he used to preach. 
These are very significant straws. "A fault confessed is haH 
redressed." Our people are anxious to shift this lately coveted 
"white man's burden" to yellow or brown shoulders, and if this 
shift is to be made, upon what shoulders can the burden of the 
Philippines be placed so properly as upon the shoulders where 
the Almighty placed it, upon their own? Who can understand 
their needs so well? 

W^HY NOT CORRECT OUR MISTAKE? 

If it was, as these writers admit, a mistake to take the Islands, 
why not undo it? If we had not taken them their inhabitants 
would have formed their own government. Spain had been 
expelled and if we had sailed away they must have governed 

30 



themselves, as indeed they were doing until we overtiirew their 
government. Why should we not do now what we ought to 
have done then? 

It cannot be claimed that it is impossible to do now what we 
could have done then. To say that is to admit that till now, 
so far from fitting them to be independent we have unfitted 
them; that our seven years have been worse than wasted. If 
this be so the sooner we stop the process of unfitting them the 
better. If the imperialist is right they are at leasG as fit now 
as they were then to govern themselves. 

Let us have the courage to admit our mistake and undo it. 
An agreement with foreign powers easily made will secure them 
against foreign aggression, as Switzerland is secured. The 
method which we adopted in Cuba has proved successful. Why 
not follow a good precedent and not perpetuate a costly blunder 
ruinous to the Filipinos and demoralizing as well as expensive 
to us? We can if we will. 

INVESTMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES IS UNSAFE. 

Meanwhile let no American invest his money in Philippine 
enterprises because he believes that America will persist in a 
policy of injustice merely to protect his miserable dollars. !N"o 
American, in ofiice or out, can give any pledge which will bind 
the American people to hold these Islands for any hngth of 
time. He who invests does so at his peril, and must understand 
distinctlv that at no distant day the conscience of his country 
will assert itself and will not hold millions of men in subjec- 
tion that a few Americans may profit. The millions invested 
in slaves did not save slavery, and ere long we shall again ask 
in the burning words of Whittier: 

"Is the dollar only real? God and truth and right a dream? 
Weighed against your lying ledgers must our manhood kick 
the beam?" 

And be sure that our answer will be a "No" as emphafic as the 
answer which we gave the same question in 1863. 

How long must the Filipinos and our own countrymen alike 
suffer from our pride and obstinacy? 

The dawn of freedom for the Philippines is breaking. Have 
patience and courage. We shall yet live to see the full day. 
This great nation will yet be more proud of having done an 
act of justice to their weaker brother^ than if all the fabled 
wealth of the Orient were won by "criminal aggression." 

31 



